Strike Looms Over N800bn Oil Marketers Debt

Fri, Oct 6, 2017 | By publisher


Oil & Gas

 

THE Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Senior Staff Association (PENGASAN) and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), yesterday said they had concluded plans  to embark on an indefinite strike over unpaid N800billion oil subsidy by the Federal Government.

The unions said that the strike action was necessary due to the continuous deteriorating welfare of its members working in petroleum product downstream sector.

They lamented that their members in the employ of oil companies had not been paid salaries for up to nine months by marketers due to inability of government to redeem its commitment to pay in spite of the intervention of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo and the directive given to the Minister of Finance to effect payment on or before the end of July 2017.

The notice of the indefinite strike by the organised labour unions in the oil and gas sector had been received by the marketers who are the employers, according to a joint communiqué issued after their joint National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Lagos.

The communiqué was signed by the marketers’ legal adviser, Patrick Etim and was made available to journalists.

Etim said that the unions in their summation stated that in the last six months, they had been inundated by officials of various labour units operating in tank farms and depots across the country that most petroleum product importers and marketing companies owed their members backlog of salaries now up to nine months.

The unions also said many members were now redundant as their employers were not able to operate their bank accounts for their operations with potential massive job losses, due to the growing size of this non-performing loan extended to oil marketers with a catastrophic banking system collapse looming in the country.

Etim maintained that the development would erode any growth gains made in the economy so far, considering that the sector would completely fail in its critical role of driving economic progress resulting in huge job losses.

He decried that the businesses of the marketers were gradually grinding to a halt due to the debts owed them by the Federal Government and the classification of their operating accounts by the banks, thereby crippling the ability of the marketers to trade since the first quarter of the year.

He added that most banks were planning to take over of his members’ tank farms and business empires, due to inability to pay back money borrowed to import products that were still pending unpaid by government.

“There is a need for President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to keep improving governance especially by correcting wrongs of previous governments and making government responsible to its contracts and responsibilities.

“For the banks, their action is to see how they can avert another round of banking system failure that could be triggered by this huge outstanding non-performing debt owed the banks by oil marketers who cannot pay because the government is yet to pay them outstanding indebtedness.

“Federal Government in June 2017 concluded reconciliations with the marketers and PPPRA and made a commitment to pay before the end of July 2017. This was following the intervention of the Vice President (who was Acting President at that time),” he said. – Independent

 

– Oct. 6, 2017 @ 08:22 GMT |

 

 

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